Meta’s Muse surges to No. 1 overall on the U.S. App Store, logging 1.8 million iOS downloads in its first 12 days in the U.S. and Canada—outpacing ChatGPT’s 1.3 million at the same stage.
Meta launches Meta One, a global subscription spanning Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Meta AI, offering more than 50 features and AI creation tools from $2.99 monthly, with Premium priced at $19.99 and business plans reaching $499.
Meta says it fixes Meta AI prompts after the tool identifies Utah mother Kalie Robins’ daughters and compiles their ages, birth weight, likely grade level, favorite places and other details from years of Facebook and Instagram posts.
X removes 4,500 Grok-generated posts and permanently suspends 674 accounts in the first 15 days of 2026 as Australia’s eSafety regulator investigates sexualised deepfakes.
Parents and children sue Meta in Illinois and California, alleging it harvested Facebook and Instagram photos without consent to train Emu and Muse Image AI models and develop the unshipped NameTag face-recognition system, potentially exposing millions to claims worth up to $5,000 per intentional Illinois biometric-privacy violation.
Meta agrees to pay as much as $17 billion to resolve states’ claims while disabling school-hour notifications and restricting likes for underage accounts, as California also pauses AI chatbot toys for children under 16 for four years.
Meta busts an Iran-linked influence operation using AI-generated content to spread anti-Republican messaging on Facebook and Instagram, where fake accounts posing as everyday Americans amass over 79,400 followers while targeting U.S. audiences on immigration and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Meta agrees to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims from 29 U.S. states alleging the company knowingly addicted children to Instagram and Facebook, with the deal introducing a 10-year framework of teen protections including daily time limits, Night Mode, and hidden like counts — pending judicial approval.
Meta launches Pocket nationwide, an AI-powered app that lets U.S. users generate and share interactive mobile games using simple prompts, built on the technology of acquired vibe-coding platform Gizmo.
Reddit launches an experimental AI voice feature that converts text posts and comments into short audio-visual videos, rolling out now on web, iOS, and Android as CEO Steve Huffman aims to make the platform more accessible and engaging.